Now, don't get me wrong, I like being an ideas person. It keeps me inspired and helps me to come up with creative solutions to problems. But there is a downside.
Sometimes there's so much going on in my head that, when I sit down to do something, I'm not sure where to start. It's easy to get pulled hither and thither, doing a bit of this and a bit of that and not really getting anywhere. I can also end up bamboozling other people when I go off at tangents and present them with too many alternatives.
So how do I cope with this? Well, it's kind of a work in progress, but here are a few things that help. If you also suffer from ideas overload, maybe they'll help you, too.
- Mindfulness practice is probably my biggest help. When I sit down to meditate I can step back from the torrent of "I could do this, or I could do that..." sufficiently to just let the thoughts come and go, without immediately feeling that I have to rush off and do something about them
- Writing stuff down is great, too. I carry several notebooks so that I can jot ideas down when they occur. Some of them have legs, others don't - when I review my notes later, I can generally tell which is which. If an idea keeps recurring, that's an indicator that it's pretty important to me and might be worth checking out
- Focusing on one thing at a time - sounds fairly basic, but surprisingly effective. I was reminded of it when I read Maitreyabandhu's great book on Mindfulness, "Life with Full Attention". Now I try to ensure that I keep my desk space free of everything except what I'm currently working on, and that I turn my email off whilst I'm doing other things
- Reducing input is pretty much a necessity in this info-heavy age that we live in. I'm currently reviewing my online marketing, and I can tell you, there are gazillions of online marketing gurus out there with appealing-sounding newsletters and signups, and I think I signed up to most of them. If I try to take all of their ideas on board, it's just too much, so I'm settling on a couple that I've found particularly helpful, and putting the rest to one side
I can't pretend I've completely conquered my ideas overload, and I'm not entirely sure I want to, but at least I can see the wood for the trees! How about you? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Best wishes
Chris
